The 2019 BETT Show is over for another year and already the organisers are taking bookings for the January 2020 show. This year’s show was once again jam packed with companies and organisations involved in digital education. As always there was much to see on the stands and at the various talks that were taking place all over BETT and beyond. From speaking to colleagues there were many highlights at…

The Hour of Code is back for 2018, December 3rd – 9th… Now entering its 6th year, the Hour of Code movement continues to grow and so far has reached over 100 million students in more than 180 countries across 48 languages and code.org, who organise the global event claim that over 600 million hours have been hosted online since 2012. Questions anyone? Read on… What exactly is the Hour…

The LEGO brand is well known around the world and many schools in Ireland already use a number of LEGO Education products such as LEGO Mindstorms and LEGO WeDo. I previously wrote a piece about LEGO WeDo back in 2016 and with the growing emphasis on STEM activities at Primary School level it’s great to see a new product coming into the education market that will support these activities. Coding…

CoderDojo Global Conference – Kilkenny Oct 19-21 DojoCon, the annual global conference for the CoderDojo community is fast approaching, October 19th – 21st in the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny. DojoCon is the must-attend networking event for anyone interested in coding, where ideas from CoderDojo volunteers and industry leaders are shared through keynote talks, workshops and more, with attendees. However, it’s not just for the initiated, conference registration is open to… Primary…

With the lofty ambition of being the largest learning event in history, The Hour of Code 2017 is back and takes place next week, December 4th – 10th. Hosted by code.org, The Hour of Code week is an opportunity for teachers and students (Ages 4 and upwards) to try computer coding and in tow have opportunities that develop the skills required to approach coding problems. Now entering its 5th year,…

TeachNet blog followers will be well familiar with our advocacy of coding in schools, and synonymous with same is Scratch. Previously, we’ve looked at Scratch (And its ubiquitous feline protagonist) in many guises but this time around I’d like to highlight the Scratch National Competition which is now open for entries. The competition, now in its 8th year, is supported by the ICS Foundation, Lero, IT Sligo and ITT Dublin…

In a previous post I mentioned that our school had just taken delivery of a GoPiGo and promised to keep you posted on our journey, and just last week, the cling-wrap was removed and the exploration began. We sourced our GoPiGo base kit from ModMyPi in the UK and this kit comes with everything you need to get started, including a robot body, motors, controls, and a power battery pack.…

With the return to the classroom a month or so on, I hope life at the chalk face is returning to some sort of normality for readers after the unavoidable chaos of the first few weeks. With timetables, planning, yard duty rosters and the like, done and dusted, maybe now is the time to take a fresh look at the technology at your disposal and flesh out some new ideas…

The BETT Show in London has been on the go for over 30 years now and it never ceases to amaze me how many people make the journey to see what is new in the world of ICT and education. This year there seemed to be an increased Irish presence with the announcement of funding for ICT in schools. This year’s show was notable in that it had some very…

Inspirefest 2016 returns to Dublin this summer with another impressive, must-see festival with leading-edge thinkers, amazing networking and investment opportunities and impactful insights into the sci-tech industry. As part of the festival, the Family Fringe will also be making a return to Merrion Square. Taking place on the morning of 2 July, from 10am to 1pm, this event will give hundreds of families the opportunity to get hands-on with and take part…

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With the start of the new academic year I thought it would be beneficial to highlight a very effective resource for inclusion in the daily teaching and learning routine of the classroom. Microsoft Learning Tools is a free online resource to help pupils… Read more